UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2026

Jeff Traylor

Press Conference

UTSA Roadrunners 45, UTRGV Vaqueros 16

Q. Jeff, what was your message to the guys in the locker room after this week one win?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I don't know how honest I want to be right now. I'm having to think through this so I can answer this thing as politically correct as possible.

Some good things and some bad things. Typical first game you need to play but you're probably not ready to play. A lot of missed tackles. We didn't break any tackles. We were inconsistent. Extended a drive, hit high on the quarterback, had a face mask, had a DPI, had a penalty on the sideline. All these extended drives that we had them off the field. That's disappointing.

There was some positive things as well. Offensively, Owen McCown was really, really special. Obviously the day DJ had and the run A'Marion had, the game Will Henderson had. Unbelievable catch by BJ in the back of end zone. There were some positives.

And first, hats off to Travis and those guys. Their crowd, their band, that was awesome. That was awesome. They came in here and made a lot of noise very similar to playing Army. It was very loud. It was like we're not used to that in here, so that was cool. It was a great college environment for the first game.

Q. Jeff, what do you think you'll see on film when you look back at your offense and kind of review what worked and what didn't in today's game?

JEFF TRAYLOR: It will be hard to say. I would say inconsistency. That's what would come to my mind right now; that would be the word. A lot of positives and some things that keep you up at night.

So yeah, whenever you have that many yards on that few of plays, I think we were over 500 yards on 58 plays, I don't want to ruin the moment, but at the same time, we got to get a lot better before Saturday.

Q. Jeff, we talked for a while now about Owen's health and how he would look this year. What did you see getting him back in live action today?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Yeah, he's like the kid from 2024. We turned a blitz loose and totally escaped and threw the ball away. He had a zero out where he should have thrown his hot and he didn't, so that's on him. He still escaped again, which that was good to see.

Made a first down with his feet once. So quarterback run game will be back in play again, so that was exciting. And, yeah, he was really good.

Q. With the new offensive coordinator what were your impressions of how everything flowed and got communicated and operated today?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Yeah, we operated fine. Have one presnaps, two presnaps on the O-line. Had a holding. That was disappointing. Yeah, we were clean. That wasn't it.

It was literally they had nine starters back on defense and Brian has done a good job with those kids. They play hard. They cause some trouble. They're little, but they cause problems.

They have done a super job over there. They played well. They played really well. You can tell they've played a game. They were more comfortable and they played well.

Q. Coach, you said last week that you guys were preparing to play both quarterbacks. How did you feel your defense responded to that challenge?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I didn't think we contained them at all. I'm sure Brad is going to be licking his chops next week. I thought they both ran around on us pretty good.

So we've got to get better contained and leverage. We got a lot of work to do before next week. Got a really good team we're fixin' to play. Yeah.

Q. Coach, they only converted 7-18 third down and 1-3 fourth downs. I know you allowed a lot of yards, but what can you say about your defense locking in on those crucial plays?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Except for the last drive we were really good in the red zone. I know the way -- I don't know who keeps stats, NCAA or media, I don't know who does it, but it's not a successful red zone play if you kick a field goal.

I mean, in my opinion -- this isn't my opinion. This is data, analytics, right? Those are four-point plays. When you hold teams to field goals you're allowing three instead of seven, that's a win. That's not a red zone success.

So I would say we were -- I think the stats are going to say they were three for four in their red zone maybe. I don't even know. In my opinion they were 1-4 because we only allowed them to score a touchdown in the red zone on the last drive.

Yeah, I don't want to hear anybody say that was our threes. I don't care. They play for UTSA. We coach them. They need to stop their butt when they're down there, and we didn't.

Q. Jeff, you mentioned next week. In addition to the rivalry aspect of that, it's been a while since you guys have been 2-0 I think and had really significant early season September momentum. Have you thought about how important that is to getting people excited and getting things going to start a season?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Yeah, we've thought about it a lot, because they been the reason we haven't had that success, so that makes it worse.

Three years ago Army is the one that messed it up, but the last two years it's been these guys.

So they've got a really good team. Brad is really good. Both those receives are really good. O-line is massive. Their defense, I haven't got to study them as much because it's a new defensive coordinator, but excited to see what that's going to look like.

I know he feels really good about the talent they brought in. He thinks they have a real chance to make a run. So we will need some fortune. We will need some breaks in order to come out of there with a chance in my opinion.

Also wanted to say to Erik Walsh and the City and the Alamodome, you know, on Friday they emailed us and let us know we couldn't get in the Dome, so I called Erik Walsh who is always great about answering my calls and letting me know. He verified on Monday there was no way we could get in here.

So when you're a football coach, you have to make your schedule for the entire week, so because we didn't have anywhere to practice outside, we usually practice 80 minutes in the Alamodome. I couldn't practice outside for 80 minutes.

So I took fifty minutes off the Friday practice and spread it throughout the week.

On Thursday at about 2:30 I was notified that the Alamodome worked extra time and went way above and beyond to get us in here. By then my kids were already gone. I had already practiced fifty extra minutes and I wasn't going to punish my kids and make them practice.

I'd had to get -- travel down here. Just a lot goes into a week of college football. Doesn't excuse the fact that a lot of work was done by a lot of people to try to get us in here, and we couldn't uphold our end of that just because our week has already been planned.

So it's like now, the week, next week is planned. Every minute all the way to the game. So I want to make sure and thank those guys. They went way above and beyond, and the Alamodome has been great partners of ours. It's one of those things that it just happened.

First time in seven years it's happened, so want to make sure to say that.

Q. Coach, what role did penalties play in your offense overall?

JEFF TRAYLOR: Yeah, that's a great point. If you look at the third quarter we had an offsides that killed a drive, we had a holding that killed a drive, we had an offsides that killed a drive.

Should you be good enough to get 15 yards? Yes, you should. There is a reason they don't make it first and 15. Not very many offenses would get first downs. There is a reason it's first and ten. We're not good enough to make it first and 15, first and 15, and surely not first and 20.

So then we missed the field goal which kind of made it feel even worse when we missed it, right? We had a great drive. Great throw to DJ. Gets down there. Had a good six yard run, had good turbo call, and their helmet came off. Slowed us down.

Just one of those days. And we played good enough. I mean, I know I sound like we lost, but I'm happy we won. Even though it doesn't look like I am.

Q. Jeff, what do you think the message will be to your team this week on the magnitude of this Texas State game so early in the season?

JEFF TRAYLOR: I just have to be really careful about answering all that stuff, JJ. I coached GJ Kinne, as you all know. You're all tired of hearing about it. Cari is tired of hearing about it. She knows and she brings it up to me all the time. He played for you. He knows everything you do, right?

So he knows I'm playing everything he is saying and he's playing everything I'm saying. He's watching everything I'm saying.

So I know that they've done a wonderful job. They're a very, very good team. We know that there is a few trophy games and the bowls, which we been very good in lately; conference championship games, which we been really good in; and rivalry games in, which we're 2-2 in those, I think, since I've been here. Not exactly sure. I think that's right. I'm sure Greg will be glad to point out when I'm wrong.

Am I right or wrong, Greg? What are we? 2-2, thank you, Kyle. I was sure Greg was sitting on that.

So it's a trophy game, right? When you're in college football, if ya'll want to be nerdy here for a while I can be nerdy, too. These kids been practicing for nine months. They practice -- let's say they practice 250 days. They have given up about three hours of their life a day for 250 days. That's 750 hours to get ready for this game today.

The average college football play is four to six seconds. That's how long it lasts. Each kid usually plays 30 plays for us on defense. So if each play -- let's give it five seconds, right? Help me with my math here. If it's five seconds, in a minute that is 12, right? So you're talking about they play three minutes today. They worked 275 hours to play three minutes.

That's a kid that played 30s and outs today. Yeah, those guys know how big this game is. You on get 12 opportunities. If you play 60 snaps in a game, 60, you're only going to get to play five minutes. Five minutes. For 275 hours of your life that you gave up.

And you wonder why they get upset on the sideline when they don't get to go first or get the ball thrown to them or they might pout or stick their big lips out.

We know. We know they enormity of the situation and we know how small the opportunity is to go out there and grab that thing. We got to be better, and we weren't good the last time we were over there and weren't good enough last year.

You impressed with all that math, Greg? God bless. Birds Up.